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Prolific film, stage and television actor, director and composer John Rubinstein, a native Angeleno and son of legendary pianist Arthur Rubinstein, appears with Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) Music Director and pianist Jeffrey Kahane, LACO principals and special guest pianist Christopher O’Riley to explore personal and musical legacies at Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s (LACO) WESTSIDE CONNECTIONS chamber music series on Thursday, May 15, 2014, 7:30 pm, at the Moss Theater in Santa Monica. Rubinstein created the role of Bob Fosse’s Pippin on Broadway and received a Tony Award for Children of a Lesser God, and O’Riley is a versatile pianist as well as host of the popular NPR radio program “From the Top.” They join LACO Music Director Jeffrey Kahane, Concertmaster Margaret Batjer and Principal Cello Andrew Shulman in a performance that pays homage to the remarkable legacy of both Rubinsteins and features Rachmaninoff’s Sonata in G minor (Shulman and Kahane), Chopin’s Nocturne in D-flat major Op. 27, No. 2 (Kahane), and Brahms’ Piano Trio No. 2 in C major, Op. 87 (Batjer, Shulman and O’Riley).

The concert also serves as a reunion of sorts for Kahane and O’Riley, who were both finalists in the 6th International Van Cliburn Piano Competition in 1981. In another connection, Kahane was the Grand Prize winner at the 1983 Arthur Rubinstein International competition, the first to be held after Rubinstein’s death.

The three-part series, with “LA Influential” as this year’s thematic twist, examines the impact our diverse city has had on arts and culture through the eyes of distinguished guest artists and speakers. LACO Concertmaster and series curator Margaret Batjer has programmed evenings that showcase the virtuosic artistry of LACO musicians in chamber masterpieces, reflecting the compelling LA connections and inspirations that have deeply influenced the series’ special guests. Westside Connections, now in its sixth season, featured Arnold Steinhardt, acclaimed first violin of the illustrious Guarneri Quartet, in February, and Culture Clash political satirist Richard Montoya in April.

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra is considered one of the world’s premier chamber orchestras as well as a leader in presenting wide-ranging repertoire and adventurous commissions. Its 2013-14 season, the Orchestra’s 45th, features a compelling mix of beloved masterpieces and genre-defying premieres from firmly established and notable up-and-coming composers programmed by Jeffrey Kahane, one of the world’s foremost conductors and pianists, who marks his 17th season as LACO’s music director.

Tickets (beginning at $50) are available online at laco.org, by calling LACO at 213 622 7001, or at the venue box office on the night of the concert, if tickets remain. Student rush tickets ($10), based on availability, may be purchased at the box office one hour before the concert. Also available for college students is the $25 “Campus to Concert Hall All Access Pass” – good for LACO’s three Westside Connections concerts at the Moss Theater, seven Orchestral Series concerts at either the Alex Theatre or UCLA’s Royce Hall and Discover Beethoven’s Eroica at Ambassador Auditorium. Discounted tickets are also available by phone for groups of 12 or more. The Moss Theater at New Roads School is located at 3131 Olympic Boulevard, Santa Monica, CA, 90404.

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Music Director Jeffrey Kahane serves as musical “tour guide” for LACO’s annual Discover program, which this season features a special one-night-only exploration of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, “Eroica,” on Saturday, February 22, 2014, 8 pm, at Pasadena’s historic Ambassador Auditorium. The evening is designed to lead patrons to a greater understanding and appreciation of a musical touchstone that forever changed the nature of the symphony and to help them hear the work with “new ears.” Kahane begins by discussing how Beethoven’s innovative tour de force revolutionized the symphony form, illustrated by the Orchestra. After intermission, he conducts a performance of the full work, followed by a question and answer segment with the audience.

Kahane, lauded for his “eloquence” (The New York Times), explores a different work each year for LACO’s annual Discover concert. According to LA Opening Nights, “Some conductors are born educators, and Jeffrey Kahane is one of them.”

Tickets (starting at $25) are on sale now and may be purchased online at laco.org, by calling LACO at 213 622 7001, or at the venue box office on the night of the concert, if tickets remain. Student rush tickets ($10), based on availability, may be purchased at the box office the day of the concert.

ARTISTS BIOS

Equally at home at the keyboard or on the podium, JEFFREY KAHANE has established an international reputation as a truly versatile artist, recognized around the world for his mastery of diverse repertoire ranging from Bach, Mozart and Beethoven to Gershwin, Golijov and John Adams. The 2013-14 season marks Kahane’s 17th season as the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s music director. He previously served as music director of the Colorado and Santa Rosa symphonies. He has garnered tremendous critical acclaim for his innovative programming and commitment to education and community involvement and received multiple ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming for his work in both Los Angeles and Denver. In addition to his programs and projects with LACO, recent and upcoming engagements include appearances at the Aspen, Mostly Mozart, Ravinia, Blossom, Music@Menlo, Chamber Music Northwest and Oregon Bach festivals; recitals in Salt Lake City, Scottsdale, Carmel and at the Laguna Beach Festival; concerto performances with the Toronto, Indianapolis, Houston, Oregon and Colorado symphonies and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra; play/conduct engagements the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and the San Francisco, National, Vancouver, Seattle and New Jersey symphonies; and conducting the New England Conservatory Symphony Orchestra in Boston and the Juilliard Orchestra at Lincoln Center. Kahane’s recent and upcoming European engagements include play/conduct programs with the Camerata Salzburg, Hamburg Symphony and the Real Filharmonía de Galicia in Spain as well as appearances at the Meck-Pomm Chamber Music Festival in Germany.

LOS ANGELES CHAMBER ORCHESTRA (LACO), proclaimed “America’s finest chamber orchestra” by Public Radio International, has established itself among the world’s top musical ensembles. Since 1997, LACO has performed under the baton of acclaimed conductor and pianist Jeffrey Kahane, hailed by critics as “visionary” and “a conductor of uncommon intellect, insight and musical integrity” with “undeniable charisma.” Under Kahane’s leadership, the Orchestra maintains its status as a preeminent interpreter of historical masterworks and a champion of contemporary composers. During its 45-year history, the Orchestra has made 31 recordings, toured Europe, South America and Japan, performed across North America and garnered eight ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming. Headquartered in downtown Los Angeles, LACO presents its Orchestral Series on Saturdays either at Pasadena’s Ambassador Auditorium or Glendale’s Alex Theatre and on Sundays at UCLA’s Royce Hall; Baroque Conversations at downtown Los Angeles’ Zipper Concert Hall; Westside Connections chamber music series, designed to illustrate the relationship between music and other artistic disciplines, at the Moss Theater in Santa Monica; and an annual Discover concert, which features an in-depth examination that sheds new light on a single piece of music, at Pasadena’s Ambassador Auditorium. LACO also presents a Concert Gala, an annual Silent Film screening and several fundraising salons each year. Additionally, LACO outreach programs Meet the Music, Community Partners, Campus to Concert Hall and the LACO/USC Thornton Strings Mentorship Program reach thousands of young people annually, nurturing future musicians and composers as well as inspiring a love of classical music.

Chamber Music Palisades (CMP) continues its 13th season with a program of five tour de force chamber works showcasing leading guitarist Martha Masters, violinist Roger Wilkie, cellist John Walz and CMP Founders/Co-Artistic Directors Delores Stevens, piano, and Susan Greenberg, flute, on Tuesday, February 2, 2010, 8:00 p.m., at St. Matthew Parish in Pacific Palisades. Featured works include Piazzolla’s compelling Histoire du Tango for flute and guitar, Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess Suite for violin, cello and piano, and Beethoven’s Trio in G Major for violin, cello and piano (Kakadu Variations). Also slated are M. Giuliani’s Duo Concertante for Flute and Guitar, op. 85, and Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Duo for piano and guitar.

The program opens with three guitar works, including Mauro Giuliani’s (1781-1829) Duo Concertante for Flute and Guitar, op. 85, composed in 1817. One of the leading guitar virtuosos of the 19th century and greatest exponents of the instrument, Giuliani worked with the era’s top musicians as well as such leading composers as Rossini and Beethoven, helping to define a new role for guitar in European music.

The second piece is Duo for piano and guitar by Italian-born composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968), one of the most prolific and important composers for the guitar in the 20th century. He began composing at age nine and later moved to America, where he wrote more than 200 works for Hollywood films. His composition students included such legends as André Previn, Henry Mancini and John Williams. Guitar virtuoso Andrés Segovia, himself, urged Tedesco to write for the guitar and proclaimed, “It is the first time the I have met a musician who understands immediately how to write for the guitar.”

Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) revolutionized the tango, spending much of his career blending classical music and tango, resulting in, among other classics, Histoire du Tango for flute and guitar, the evening’s third selection. It is a masterful work in which the composer conveys the evolution of this seductive dance, which began in the humble working-class neighborhoods of Buenos Aires in the early 1900′s and went on to captivated the world.

Chamber Music Palisades takes the musical mix in a different direction with Ludwig Van Beethoven’s (1770-1827) Trio in G Major for violin, cello and piano (Kakadu Variations). In 1803, Beethoven took a song from a then current operetta by Wenzell Muller and turned it into a lean and powerful set of variations. The operetta was named “The Sisters from Prague” and the song was “I am the Tailor Kakadu,” hence the reference “Kakadu Variations.”

The program concludes with a concert arrangement of George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess Suite for violin, cello and piano that is based on familiar songs from the composer’s popular opera Porgy and Bess, including “Summertime,” “It Ain’t Necessarily So” and others.

Chamber Music Palisades was founded in 1997 by Pacific Palisades residents Greenberg and Stevens. They draw guest artists from their vast pool of talented colleagues in the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Opera, plus other leading instrumentalists from the U.S. and Europe. In addition to presenting established chamber works, to date Chamber Music Palisades has commissioned 11 compositions by such renowned composers as Paul Chihara, Jane Brockman, Henri Lazarof, Adrienne Albert, Maria Newman, Gernot Wolfgang and Joel McNeely.

Tickets are $25; students with ID are free. St. Matthew’s Parish is located at 1031 Bienveneda in Pacific Palisades, CA 90272. For tickets and information, please call 310-463-4388 or visit www.cmpalisades.org.